A Haunting in Konoha
by VespaRiderXephon-01
Summary: People have started disappearing in Konoha. In these peaceful times, there are no enemy villages, so is it a ghost? No, but what happens when your only hope for a savior is someone with mental problems?
1. Prologue: That same nightmare again

Blech...I don't think many people will like a horror storry. I may just leave this with one chapter... Plus I think I screwed around too much and messed up the nightmare... 

"speech"

'thoughts'

_dream sequence_**

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**A Haunting in Konoha?**

**Chapter 1**

Prologue: That same nightmare…again

_A man was stalking in the shadows, seeming for all the world like a wraith in a tattered black cloak with a hood billowing out behind him while he ran…no, glided across streets, up buildings, and through the air. In addition to the full-body cloak, he wore an hunter-nin facemask, only it was demented, distorted, deformed beyond all recognition. It was red with white stripes. These stripes were thin, mere lines all around the edge, as the mouth was pulled back comically wide with wrinkles accenting the edges, as if one were laughing. The eyes were equally disturbing, drooping just the slightest bit with wrinkles in the corners of the eyes as well _(If you don't get it, think those happy version of the masks they use in those old drama play/theatre things…but without the nose)_. It was a simplistic facemask, but one that inspired fear nonetheless._

_It was a festival night, and the man was currently lurking among the edges of a barbeque restaurant, calmly waiting with only the moon as his backdrop…as if he were waiting for someone…_

_Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino walked out of the BBQ joint, talking animatedly as if they didn't have a care in the world. The masked stranger jumped down right in front of them, and even though those around them didn't seem to notice the obviously suspicious stranger, team ten did. The man's smiling mask leered at them before he ran off, chuckling sinisterly, like satin that's coated in acid._

_Team ten immediately set off in pursuit of the stranger, but not without a, "tch, how troublesome" from Shikamaru. They followed the man into an alley, where they found him waiting, just…floating there. Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru found this faintly disturbing as his mask coupled with the stillness of his posture just oozed creepy vibes. _

_The creepy one spoke up, his mask staying still all the while, "hnhnhnhnhn…" he snickered, "You're mine…you've fallen…into my trap!" His voice wasn't the loud, brash, crazed, and manic screeching you would expect to hear from most killers, but a quiet simper that was all the more scary for it's smoothness and confidence, as if he knew you were already as good as dead, and he would enjoy it for all it was worth._

_Shikamaru and the others could only stand there as needles started to spray from…well…everywhere. There were so many, they looked like a black cloud _(like in Hero, with the arrows). _They could do nothing as they were struck over and over again, a thousand times over as they fell down, all but dead as a deep yellow poison seeped out of their wounds._

_------------------------_

_Shikamaru woke up, slowly opening his eyes as he groaned. Similarly, he noticed about eleven more groans of different timbres echo all around him. Snapping awake, he noticed that he, Chouji, Ino, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Lee, and Tenten were all tied by their wrists and feet on different chairs placed together inside an old, rotting house, probably in the outer edges of Konoha._

_By now, everyone was awake and aware, raising a veritable uproar about where they were and how they were Konoha ninja, and doing 'such a thing' was against the law. They were quickly shut up by the appearance of the masked person, until…,"YOU!" the genin (minus Shino, Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru, of course) collectively shouted. Evidently, they were mad about the whole kidnapping thing. But hey, who wouldn't be?_

_"mnhnhnhnhnhnhahahahahahahahahaHA!" The man cackled maniacally. "How are you, my sweets?" He whispered to them in his sweet, simpering voice, walking up close, he examined them. At one point he put his face so close that Sasuke swore that he could smell his breath and see his eyes. His eyes were of the most putrid yellow with red dotting the irises here and there, while his breath smelled foul, but not at the same time. It was like a luring taint, that smelled of decay, but made that decay seem sweet, like the juiciest oranges. It disgusted Sasuke to no end, and he was dismayed that he couldn't pull back farther than he already had._

_Eventually, the man finished and stood back probably concentrating in deep thought, when Kiba yelled out, "What the hell are you doing! Let us out, Dammit!"_

_Even Sasuke, who was still grossed out by the man, joined in, "We are ninja of Konohagakure! You will release us now or face severe consequences at the hand of the law!"_

_The disgusting man only laughed, a sweet, lilting, melodic laugh that seemed utterly unfit for someone like him. It made him seem full of contradictions, full of betrayals, full of the most disgusting and vile excesses imaginable, and most of all, full of the promise of the multitudes of pain and torture his enemies would receive if they so much as showed the slightest hint of a scent. "Feisty! Yes, you all will make the perfect bait, and the perfect offering; for the perfect one…" At that sentence, he broke into laughter once more, before leaning in towards Ino, his tongue reaching out of his mask to lick her cheek, "You all taste…sublime…" he whispered into her ear._

_Ino shuddered and grew pale. If the genin weren't scared already, they were now. Sweating and twitching, Chouji had even wet himself as the man approached them with a knife, muttering to himself all the way, "ahahah…yes, he will be pleased. This is the perfect gift! I will present this and he will love me! Ahah…yes…yes…" _

_He approached Sakura first. Running his knife along her jaw line, he slowly unbuttoned her dress. The genin were all staring in horror as he removed all the clothes on her upper body _(She still has those shorts on)_. Then, he made the first cut. It was deep and down the middle of her chest. Sakura winced, flinched, and tried to writhe in pain, but was held down, so she settled on biting her lip, trying not to give the man the satisfaction of hearing her scream. Suddenly, he swept the blade to the side, under the skin and cutting it off. As it fell off softly, hitting the ground with a wet squishing sound, all the genin realized it; he was going to skin them alive!_

_At this revelation, Sakura couldn't hold it in anymore. She screamed in agony. She screamed in pain. But most of all, she screamed for the loss of hope, the loss of all the things she had left to do, and the loss of her friends and her love with her. Her shattering screams and screeches filled throughout Konoha, striking fear in some primal aspect of people through the sheer agony and sorrow conveyed in those screams. Until, suddenly, it fell silent. The people of Konoha were still frozen, though they let out a small breath of relief now that the horror was over. However, the strangest thing was, none of the Shinobi went to investigate the screams. Simply, they were simply all too scared of someone, or something, that could make a human produce such inhuman sounds of pain and torture. Even Morino Ibiki, said to be the master at torture and interrogation, cowered in a dark corner of his home._

_Inside the derelict house, all the genin were shocked and traumatized. They did nothing else but…just…**stare** at the at the corpse of Haruno Sakura, who had the skin of her entire torso sheared off by that psychotic bastard, who was currently putting in the finishing touches by skinning her head as well. Finished, he stood up, and looked at the others. Realizing they were next, they all raised a bemoaning wail, begging to be released, the wail was not enough to reach out of the house, but enough to fill the inside with the noise. Taking no heed, the psycho approached Sasuke._

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_As the screams rose once more, this time unceasing as the killer moved from one victim to another with incredible speed, Naruto was returning from a short C-rank mission outside of village borders._

_A few dozens of meters away from Konoha, Naruto started hearing the screams. Naruto's eyes widened. He recognized those voices! His friends were being tortured! Hurrying, Naruto jumped the gates, ignoring the village guards in his haste to find his friends, and his would-be family…_

_-----------------------------------------------------------------_

_The killer had finished skinning his victims, and was now **eating** the skin that was shaved off. The dead bodies were piled up onto a food cart stolen from a local restaurant. Savoring the taste of human skin, he chewed slowly._

_He was still eating, the white flesh hanging out of his mask as he bent over the pile of skin, when Naruto burst into the house, panting. Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed the bodies there. Skinned alive, none of them were recognizable, the only defining feature left was they're eyes. But before Naruto could say anything about this, the masked one spoke in a tiny, shrill version of his normal voice, "Ah, Naruto, my love…you've come!" He was over by his side in a second, pushing him towards the center of the room where the remains were. _

_Whispering in Naruto's ear, the perverse psycho said, "Do you like it? It's **your** offering…eat it, I've saved you the best…" Naruto was by now sick to his stomach. This guy killed in one of the most painful ways imaginable, and then ate his victims like they were a **treat**!_

_When Naruto made no move to do…well…anything, the unnamed stranger became annoyed, "Do you not like the offerings? Are they not good enough for you?" So saying, he slid his knife under his neck._

_Naruto gulped and looked down at the corpses, then threw up. They were disgusting. Starting to attract flies, the corpses all stared at him through lidless, dull eyes; almost as if they were blaming him for not being there, and trying to rip his soul with guilt as revenge. And that was not the worst of it, the rest of their bodies were dripping in blood that coated their now exposed muscles and organs. The sheer sliminess of their organs and muscles were just disgusting._

_Unfortunately for him, the ninja with mental problems seemed to take offense at his actions. Eyes almost bulging through his mask, he yelled, "Do you not like the offerings! Do you think you're too good for me! Well, heh, If I can't have you, then no one will! Aha, Aha, Ahahahahaahhahahaha!" Laughing with wild abandon, he leapt at Naruto._

_Naruto was still stunned and motionless from his encounter with the bodies. So, when he became aware of his crazed attacker, he could do nothing more than scream and hope for a quick death, unlike that which was afforded his friends. His attacker lunged and pierced his lung through with the knife in his hand. Unbelievable pain coursing through his nerves, he screamed fo-_

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Naruto bolted upright the scream just starting to die on his lips. Noticing his heavy sheen of sweat, he wiped off his face with his sleeves, causing a damp spot to appear on them. "Damn," he cursed, "not again."

Uzumaki Naruto had been having the same recurring dream for the past year. He'd been having it for so long and he'd worn out most of his reactions to it; people were starting to think he was mentally insane. There would be some crazy bastard with alternating masks killing his friends and acquaintances through the worst ways imaginable. Granted, there were different methods of murder and the victims shifted from his genin partners, his jounin sensei, and his older acquaintances (such as Jiraiya and Tsunade), but each one still had enough similarities to be considered a recurring dream. It happened so often that he was becoming afraid to sleep at night.

Padding into his rather small kitchen, he stepped quietly over the tiled surface to fill a glass of tap water. His hands shaking violently, he almost spilled the water before he brought the glass into the bathroom with him where he took out successfully some of his medication and swallowed it along with his water. Apparently, the medicine was supposed to help him with his dreams by repressing his brain activity or whatever. He only knew that it hadn't worked so far, but he continued taking it more out of habit than the hope that it would start working later on.

Knowing that he wouldn't be going back to sleep, and that it was almost 4:30 in the morning anyway, he brushed his teeth and took a cold shower before making his regular cup of chicken flavored cup ramen for breakfast. Seeing that he had a few hours until he was to meet with his team, he made some tea and sat in his kitchen, thinking about random things for the next few hours.

Noticing that it was about time to go, he put on his battle outfit and strapped on his weapons, and calmly walked out of the door, still with a slight tired droopiness on his face. Unbeknownst to him he was about to experience the most horrible and stressing series of days of his life.

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Well, that's the first chapter! R&R please! 


	2. Ominous mission, beginnings

It's been a while since I last updated this story. Sorry, but I hope all you readers aren't mad at me!

**Disclaimer:

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Chapter 2

The Ominous Mission; Beginnings

Recap:

_Padding into his rather small kitchen, he stepped quietly over the tiled surface to fill a glass of tap water. His hands shaking violently, he almost spilled the water before he brought the glass into the bathroom with him where he took out successfully some of his medication and swallowed it along with his water. Apparently, the medicine was supposed to help him with his dreams by repressing his brain activity or whatever. He only knew that it hadn't worked so far, but he continued taking it more out of habit than the hope that it would start working later on. _

_Knowing that he wouldn't be going back to sleep, and that it was almost 4:30 in the morning anyway, he brushed his teeth and took a cold shower before making his regular cup of chicken flavored cup ramen for breakfast. Seeing that he had a few hours until he was to meet with his team, he made some tea and sat in his kitchen, thinking about random things for the next few hours._

_Noticing that it was about time to go, he put on his battle outfit and strapped on his weapons, and calmly walked out of the door, still with a slight tired droopiness on his face. Unbeknownst to him he was about to experience the most horrible and stressing series of days of his life. _

End Recap:

Naruto walked into the mission hall with his team following behind him. Today, however, Kakashi was preoccupied with an A-rank mission, leaving only him, Sasuke, and Sakura to complete today's mission.

Tsunade, the Hokage ever since the death of Sarutobi during the Chuunin exams when Naruto was twelve (he is now 16, one year after his training with Jiraiya. He's a chuunin now), looked up at them and said, "Ah, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, you're here. Now to get down to business."

"What's our mission for today?" Sasuke asked, stepping up from behind Naruto.

"Your mission for today is C-rank, bordering on B." Tsunade replied, " You are to travel to the borders of Fire country, where you will find a village called Shiriyoku, in which you are hired to eliminate a man."

At this, Naruto raised his eyebrow, silently asking the question: _A man? Not very specific. Who is he, What did he do? Why is he hunted? His motives?_

Tsunade continued, "His name, which, frankly, isn't very important, is Kisuke Kai. Brown hair, green eyes. Around 20 years of age. One week prior, he went crazy and started killing everyone he could in the town square. I won't tell you how, suffice it to say that his mouth was very active, though."

At this point, team 7 collectively flinched at the images that entered their heads. They managed to hold onto the bile that was rising in their throats, though, as Tsunade was still talking.

"As a result, the rest of the village was forced to leave and take shelter in the outskirts of their neighbor, Tashiba. They are the ones that hired you. You are to meet them there first and receive further details before moving on to the actual mission. Naruto is the leader for this one. You leave in an hour. Dismissed."

Naruto and his team walked out of the building. Understandably, since this was Naruto's first experience at command, he was nervous. "Errrr heh heh, I guess we pack up and meet in an hour?" He said.

------One hour later------

Team 7 met in front of east gate and without further ado left the village. It would be about a week's worth of travel to the Fire country borders by non-ninja, but only three days for an experienced ninja.

Nothing really interesting happened along the way to Tashiba city. Naruto started complaining halfway because there was nothing to do but run and his teammates were being too quiet. Sakura was content with staring at Sasuke (or rather, Sasuke's posterior) until Naruto started complaining, in which Sakura immediately switched priorities and pounded Naruto upside the head and shut him up. She had to keep doing so every ten minutes until they reached the village or (during the night) put up camp. Needless to say, Sasuke was thoroughly annoyed with the two by the time they reached their destination to ask for information on their target.

When they did appear at the outskirts of the outskirts (XP), they were lead immediately to the local Daimyo's tent. Inside, an old man who was still in very good shape (a.k.a really buff 'n' burly XD) was sitting in seiza (1) with his eyes closed. The ninja were motioned to sit down by the man who was standing outside of the tent.

The man didn't look like he'd be doing anything anytime soon and so team 7 let their minds and eyes wander. A voice made them all jump and come back to reality very soon, however, as it seemed the Daimyo had noticed them.

"It seems the Konoha ninja are here. Turn around and let me see your faces." Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura complied. "Ah, that's better" he said, "Now, I trust that you've come for the information?" The team of chuunin nodded. "Well, then. Tell me what your honorable Hokage-sama has told you so far."

After the chuunin were done reciting what they knew, the Daimyo let out a hoarse laugh, "Ha! It seems you know everything already!"

At this, the chuunin's eyes bugged out, "WHAT! Then what the hell did we come here for!" they yelled.

The Daimyo laughed again, "Well, I actually told Tsunade-sama everything already, but I didn't know how much she'd tell you. Really, I just asked her to send you here first so I could get a good look at you. See our potential saviors. Of course, if I judged you too weak, I would've sent you back right away, anyway."

All three of the ninja looked rather miffed at this. "So, did we pass your 'test'?" Naruto asked sullenly.

The Daimyo laughed once more. Yes, he seems to enjoy laughing a lot, "HA! Of course you did! With flying colors, even!"

Now thoroughly annoyed, and sensing that the so-called 'meeting' was over, the chuunin team turned to leave. Before they exited the tent however, the Daimyo called out, "Oh! And before I forget, he likes to stay in the flower shop in the northeastern corner of the square!"

This only served to annoy the ninja more. _Senile old fool, how could he forget such vital information!_ They thought in unison.

------Shiriyoku------

Team 7 walked through the gates with no trouble, and at first it seemed as if there was nothing wrong with the city, other that it was almost uninhabited. No marks of struggle, no blood, nothing out of place at all. That, however, changed as they got closer to the center of the city.

It started out small at first. Just a few specks of dropped blood and turned over plates and chairs. However, as they got closer to the town square, specks turned into pools, and plates and chairs turned into tables and cart stands, until they finally saw the town square…and promptly ejected their lunches.

There was blood everywhere, so much so that it was nigh impossible to find a clean spot anywhere within the square, whether they looked up, down, right, left, or any combination of those directions. In addition to that, everything was destroyed, carts, tables, awnings, doors, glass, everything short of actual building were toppled, trampled and broken.

It didn't stop there, either. Whole limbs were lying uselessly in various parts on the ground. Fingers, arms, noses, ears, and even eyes were spared no mercy as you could witness them in all their glory by looking just about anywhere. The original corpses were there, too. Mere torsos now and some even lacked heads. Many where disemboweled, intestines strewn all over as if to make a small street on their own.

As the konoha chuunin finally ran out of things to throw up, dry heaving and retching, they hobbled over to the nearest body, inspecting it only to find that the mode of death was…biting?

They backed away from the body, not caring to know more about the criminal's mind. Frankly, they were scared of what they would find. "Ew. Ok, let's just find this guy and kill him as fast as we can 'cause I wanna get out of here!" Naruto said from behind his hand, twitching in disgust.

At that moment, as if he was summoned, a man walked out of the building across from them. Obviously, this was the ninja's target. His brown hair was matted and stained black with volumes of blood, and his green eyes glowed with madness. His clothes were caked with blood as well, so much so that the entire thing was stiffened and broken off in sections (Like how if your clothes were made from Styrofoam and you tried to move around in it…yeah).

He was hunched over and seemed to almost walk on all fours (he would look like it from far away, but his hands weren't touching the ground). His mouth was smeared with blood and his teeth had little bits of sinew and meat tissue between the cracks. Fortunately, they were hidden from view when he raised a dismembered human arm to take a bite out of it like a snack.

Kisuke Kai looked at them through crazed eyes set in a tilted head and said two words, two words that put irrational fear into them more than anything else, "New food?"

And without any warning, Kisuke launched himself at the team of shinobi, swaying as he ran, causing foamy spittle to spill from his mouth as it lolled back and forth.

Naruto and his team just managed to leap out of the way of Kisuke's attack (Well, Naruto and Sasuke did. Sakura had to be dragged, seeing as how she was still in shock at all the blood and gore), the questing hand latched onto a nearby chair back and broke it into splinters in his grip. His jaw came less than a second after, making a spectacular snapping sound as his mouth closed, iron hard teeth clashing together ferociously.

The three looked on in horror, wondering how any proper human could perform such feats. "N-no way…" Sasuke said, "it looks as if he's over-taxing his muscles…without expending any chakra, too…"

Naruto, dodging another lunge by the target, retaliated with a couple of kunai before yelling back, "What! What the hell do you mean, Sasuke!"

"Idiot!" Sasuke yelled, mad because now he had to explain during a _battle_ of all times, "The regular human muscle usually only runs at 10 of full capacity in order to put a buffer, allowing oneself to not overstrain the muscles and use them multiple times throughout the day, which means right now, both of us are using only 10 of our full muscle strength. However, there are some ways to increase muscle output, such as the lotus (because the first step in learning to lotus requires one to give more muscle output than the norm). Right now, this man is running at about 50 or 60 maximum muscle output."

Naruto, throwing a kunai in front of Kisuke (and giving the man a small cut in his arm) to prevent him from getting Sakura (who was still in shock) replied, "And? What the hell does that mean?"

"Fool! Even the lotus only increases muscle output to about 20!"

-----Tsunade's office, Konoha-----

Tsunade ran around like a beheaded chicken in her office, trying to find her missing ball. "Shit! Shit! Where's the ball! Where the hell is my ball! I have to have my ball!"

Shizune was right along Tsunade, running and shouting, "We need to find the ball! We must find the ball! Where's the ball! Help us look for the ball!"

The ANBU that subsequently came in were immediately confused, "What! What ball? Whose ball?"

"The Sandaime's ball! (2)" Tsunade yelled in reply, "I want his ball! I need his ball!"

The ANBU flinched and turned slightly green at implications of why Tsunade would want the Sandaime's ball, but they turned to help anyway.

This continued on, more people being enlisted to help all the while as the whole of the Hokage tower was turned upside down with the chaos.

------?------

He snickered and licked his lips sensuously as he watched Naruto fight his _turned one_ through a crystal ball that he stole from the Hokage tower. He was not wearing pants and his hands were preoccupied with something in between his legs as he talked to himself, "Ooh, Naruto. I didn't know you could do that! Naruto, you're –ah- so strong, and –ah- so hot, and –aaahh- and so _mine!_ Fufufufufu…the preparations are ready, and as soon as you come back to me, you will have you're _present_…"

He stroked the crystal ball with hands covered in white liquid, laughing all the while.

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1) seiza is what you call the position you sit in formally. You know, with you legs under your butt? (I can't explain this well. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, try googling it.)

2) That crystal ball that the Sandaime was using to scry on Naruto during episodes 1 and 2

Well, I hope you like this chapter as well, the third one is coming much sooner than this one is, as I'm working on it right now. Plz drop a review before you go!


	3. Mission's end, Plan's start

There we go, chapter 3, just like I promised. There's less gore than the first two chapters, but it's forgivable as this one's basically the wrap up of the fight and the setup for the next big happening.

**Disclaimer:...

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Chapter 3

Mission's end, Plan's start

Recap:

_He snickered and licked his lips sensuously as he watched Naruto fight his turned one through a crystal ball that he stole from the Hokage tower. He was not wearing pants and his hands were preoccupied with something in between his legs as he talked to himself, "Ooh, Naruto. I didn't know you could do that! Naruto, you're –ah- so strong, and –ah- so hot, and –aaahh- and so mine! Fufufufufu…the preparations are ready, and as soon as you come back to me, you will have you're present…" _

_He stroked the crystal ball with hands covered in white liquid, laughing all the while. _

End Recap:

The ninja were tiring, and they knew it.

They've been trying different attack strategies for about an hour now, however, nothing worked and the situation hasn't changed. They were still in deep shit, and they were still at square one, well, negative one, actually. They weren't fresh anymore. It didn't help that the floor was covered in blood, making it hard for the ninja to get traction without the constant use of chakra.

Kisuke lunged at Naruto again making divots in the pavement where his feet pushed off. Naruto was caught off guard, luckily, he was saved from the blow that would have taken his head clean off when he slipped in a particularly deep pool of blood, staining his orange clothes crimson red.

Kisuke quickly changed course and he leered down at a helpless, grounded Naruto. He wrapped his hands around Naruto's upper arm and head, nearly breaking both body parts in his stupendous grip.

Just when Kisuke was about to bite into Naruto's jugular, three shuriken slammed into Kisuke's abdomen, releasing Naruto. Sadly, this seemed to have no apparent affect on the victim, as the crazed man/beast simply pulled the shuriken out, blood clotting the instant those metal instruments of death left his wounds.

Sasuke gnashed his teeth, "Tch. His blood clots immediately, meaning he can't be subdued by blood loss. Adding to the fact that we haven't been able to inflict anything more than small flesh wounds for all this time. We can't even try a rasengan or chidori because he's too fast. This would be a good time for one of your plans, dumbass."

"Shut up! I can't just pull these things out of my ass, you know." Naruto replied, trying to keep his eyes on the crazed madman while talking. He sighed, "Still, it doesn't seem like we'll be able to do anything at all unless if we sacrifice something to distract him with."

Sasuke paused for a bit. Luckily, the enemy did not capitalize on his fatal mistake, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Naruto explained, "as I see it, we both have jutsu that can kill him in one hit. However, he has no openings to take advantage of and he's just too fast for us to just charge in there and fire one off. So, the only logical course of action is to sacrifice something, right?"

Sasuke nodded, not liking where this was going. Naruto continued, his face scrunching up in dislike as he explained, "However, he doesn't seem to respond to anything other than us, as we are the only living beings in the area. So, that means one of us has rush in and be the sacrifice so that the other can follow up and kill him."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, not seeing any other way, "The question is: who will be the sacrifice?"

"At this point, it is the person who will take the least damage from his grip." Naruto's face was grim, watching as Sakura tried to distract the thing that was once Kisuke.

The two joined the fight, knowing instinctually that when the chance came, one of them would sacrifice themselves anyway.

Kisuke's speed seemed to hinder him as much as it helped him, as he was usually going so fast that it was hard to turn and maneuver effectively. However, even so, the ninja had trouble trying to avoid him, due to their reluctance to step on, and possibly crush, the bodies of the once living loitered the streets like the cobblestones themselves.

And so the two enemies continued their dance of generous life and gruesome death, each attacking and avoiding endlessly. It was unnoticeable at first, but it seemed that the monster that was once named Kisuke seemed to grow more…irritated after each pass, as if missing its would be meal was angering it, making it hungrier and more aggressive.

Every time the crazed man lunged, its prey would jump to the side just in time, and throw unidentifiable (to him) but sharp objects into his person. Soon enough, he was covered in numerous minor clotted wounds and was NOT happy about it.

And so, he did the only thing that his tiny, possessed brain could think of, he bulked up his muscles once more, increasing his muscle output to 80 percent before lunging again, this time teeth first.

However, the added speed also lowered his ability to stop, and this time he rammed straight into a building wall, biting a hole in the wall as his head rammed through. Suddenly, to the ninja's surprise, the man-monster howled in pain as even though his muscle strength had increased exponentially, his nerve's toughness as well as the durability of his teeth had not.

It pulled its head out of the hole to reveal that half his teeth were shattered into unusable little stumps. _This is our chance!_ Naruto and Sasuke thought at the same time. They both charged at their target, preparing to attack. They were sensed, though and so before Naruto could charge up a Rasengan, Kisuke has latched onto his wrist, shattering it instantly and causing him to howl in pain. "Hold on, Naruto!" yelled Sasuke as he charged up a Raikiri.

By the time Sasuke was done with his seals and had the ball of lightning ready in his hands, the Kisuke monster had bitten into Naruto's shoulder (the same one with the crushed wrist), and though unable to bite it off due to his damaged teeth, he did manage to tear a gash through the shoulder, cleaving halfway through it and showing his bone structure to the world. Naruto yelled out in pain once again as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and blood rolled off his shoulder in veritable rivers. With the last of his willpower, Naruto managed to pivot the undamaged half of his body to the side, exposing a large portion of their enemy's torso. "Sasuke…now…" Naruto said weakly, the power draining from his voice even as he spoke.

Sasuke roared in anger, and taking Naruto's directive, rammed his Raikiri straight into the crazed man's chest, forcing him to let go of Naruto and giving him a grievous wound in the process.

Sasuke leapt away quickly with Naruto in his arms, allowing the Kisuke monster to stumble around in shock, trying to cover up his wound, which not surprisingly, was not bleeding much at all, as the sheer heat from the Raikiri mostly cauterized the wound upon impact.

As always, its blood rushed to clot the rest of the wound, however, at the same time, this glow started to appear, seeming as if it was trying to regenerate and heal the wound caused by Sasuke. Team 7 could only guess this happened with all the other wounds they gave him as well.

As the glow enveloped the large hole that obliterated his lungs, something strange happened. It was as if the glow realized that this was too much to heal, and so it tried to increase its healing power, as the glow seemed to envelop the rest of his body too, as evidenced by it shining through the crazed man's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

It was when the glow started expand, extracting and retracting sporadically, that Sasuke realized what was going on. "It's gonna explode!" he yelled.

His warning came just in time, as just when the threw themselves to the ground, it exploded, the glow flashing momentarily before Kisuke's upper torso exploded, spreading muscle fragments, innards, and brain matter everywhere alongside copious amounts of bone shrapnel.

Sasuke was the only one injured, having been showered with the slicing fragments of bone as he tried to protect a wounded and unconscious Naruto. Bleeding profusely (though not nearly as much as Naruto), he and Sakura surveyed the scene before them.

The streets looked relatively unchanged after their target's explosion, as all the blood and gore had just mixed with the overloading amount of blood and gore already on the street, but that only made it all the more sad. The entire town square actually looked relatively unchanged, save for a few more broken tables and chairs from the outside diner, as well as that large hole in the flower shop's wall. Sasuke sighed, "Okay, Sakura, go bandage up Naruto while I figure out what we can bring as proof back to our employer."

Sakura hesitated, "O…kay, but what about you, Sasuke-kun?"

"I'm fine" Sasuke scowled, before flinching in pain, "On second thought, bandage me up after Naruto."

Sakura nodded and headed off to quickly field dress Naruto so she could get to work on her love interest. And even possibly get to see him topless! Oh my, what naughty thoughts!

Sasuke got tired of thinking halfway through, and just decided that Kisuke's lower body would have to do. So, after Naruto's wound was hastily cleaned and put in a sling, and Sasuke had the bone shards taken out and his wounds bandaged, they were off to the outskirts of Tashiba.

------Tashiba outskirts, Shiriyoku refugee's camp, Mayor's tent------

The three chuunin walked into the mayor's tent (Naruto woke up 3/4 of the way to Tashiba). Too tired and bone weary to even think about courtesy, they ignored the sentries when they walked through and just dumped what was left of Kisuke at the mayor's feet.

The mayor raised a questioning eyebrow at the shinobi, decidedly ignoring their rudeness in light of their obvious fatigue. Naruto explained, "That's what's left of Kisuke. Sorry, we couldn't get anything more decisive on the account of the fact that he kinda blew up on us."

The mayor chuckled lightly at the disbelieving faces of his sentries, who had followed the konoha ninja in. Well, I trust you've done your job and it's safe to move back into Shiriyoku to start repairs. After all, it seems you have the wounds to prove it." He reached for a medium-sized leather pouch on his right and tossed it to the chuunin shinobi, "Here's your pay, you can leave. After all you've done, I think you would want to hurry on home, no?"

Team 7 nodded gratefully and promptly exited, itching to get home. The sentries stayed behind, looking at their leader concernedly. The one on the right spoke, his partner nodding in agreement, "With all due respect, we trust in your judgment and all, but are you sure it was wise to let them go? Their wounds looked pretty serious, and we do have some good doctors with us."

The mayor shook his head, "No, it would be much better to receive treatment in konoha, their medics are much better."

The two stiffened in indignation, after all, their own mayor was practically insulting their townsmen (in their perspective, at least). They couldn't be blamed, however, was it so wrong to have pride in their hometown?

Their leader chuckled heartily once more, "Have you heard of the one called…Tsunade?"

------Team 7------

Days later, the three chuunin were mere hours from konoha. Their resolve was tiring, however. Naruto was still bleeding rivers, and Sasuke's back had started to ache uncontrollably. They both had to change dressings multiple times already and were losing blood, the paleness starting to show in their faces.

That was why Sakura decided to strike up conversation to distract them from their pain, "So…why do you think that man, what was his name, Kisuke? Ah, yes, Kisuke, went crazy like that?" She flinched, she could tell as the words left her mouth, that that was a bad subject for both of her teammates.

"I don't know and I don't care." Naruto said coldly, "I just want to get back to konoha and spend the rest of the day in bed." Sasuke nodded in agreement. All hopes of conversation effectively killed for the moment, team 7 spent the rest of their journey to konoha in silence.

------Konoha, Tsunade's office------

The search for the Sandaime's ball had gone on for days, and Tsunade had just given up, hoping that it would just show up one of these days. She had just settled down to try and relieve that buildup of paperwork that had accrued on her desk not one hour ago and was already itching to get out.

Luckily for her, it was just that moment that her assistant, Shizune stepped in. Tsunade was planning to con her into doing her paperwork instead, when Shizune spoke, offering a much better alternative, "Tsunade-sama, it seems Naruto has come back."

Now, Tsunade always had time for the blonde boy that had grown so close to her over the years. Adding to the fact that she was looking to get out of her office for a while and she was gone in a flash.

Down at the South gate, the large doors opened to her, revealing…a severely wounded team 7.

Tsunade gasped in shock, "Naruto! What happened to you!"

Naruto just chuckled weakly, "Yo, Baa-chan, I'm home, and a little ti-" Naruto never got to finish the sentence as he fell to the dusty road, clearly unconscious.

Tsunade, Shizune, and the rest of Team 7 gasped once more, "NARUTO!"

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